In a staggering display of bell end diplomacy, Trump has pissed off Colombia. Messing up an existing repatriation process by treating Colombians like convicts, he created a drama to entertain the gullible.
The background to the USA – Colombia tariff war that briefly flared up yesterday has been overlooked by most news outlets. On the surface it was about Colombia refusing landing permission for two military aeroplanes carrying returning Colombian migrants. Rather than dealing with the issue normally by diplomatic channels, Trump chose to post on social media that he was applying a 25% tariff on goods coming from Colombia.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro retaliated by applying 25% tarrifs on US goods. Perhaps he had quickly figured out that this was a performative exercise. As a good faith action Petro announced that the presidential plane would be used to repatriate Colombian migrants. Petro has now capitulated with Trump threatening to rachet up sanctions including moving to 50% tarrifs and visa restrictions on Colombian officials.
The whole issue was about creating a drama so Trump could make a show on social media of how tough he is. This was well received on Truth Social where the gullible lapped up the entertainment. Unfortunately most of the news media were not much better than passive recipients of events and just reported on it without adding any depth or nuance to understand what is happening.
There was already agreement between the USA and Colombia regarding repatriating Colombians who did not have visas to be in the USA. From 2020 to 2024 there were 475 repatriation flights. These used civilian aeroplanes and the passengers were not shackled like dangerous criminals. Importantly, there were not photographers present to ensure to publicise the humiliation.
Photograph of Colombians in shackles being loaded on to a military transport plane. No faces shown.
Click to reveal
The use of military transport planes which have nowhere near the passenger capacity as civilian airline planes, further demonstrate that the whole exercise was a deliberate publicity stunt.
Presumably the Trump administration knew about the existing process and the large number of previous repatriations. There should be no doubt that this was all about creating a drama. It is questionable whether playing a country like Colombia was the smartest move. Previously there has been a good working relationship between the two countries on issues such as tackling drug trafficking. Colombia is also one of the largest exporters of goods like coffee into the USA.
There is no indication of whether future Colombian migrants will be better treated on subsequent repatriation flights.